On Monday, November 23, the ECB announced its weekly Main Refinancing Operation (MRO). This auction, which was conducted on Tuesday, attracted bids for €59.07 billion from euro area eligible counterparties, €6.49 billion more than the amount bid for in the previous week. The bid amount was allotted in full at a fixed rate equivalent to the prevailing main refinancing rate of one per cent in accordance with current ECB policy.
Also on Monday, November 23, the Eurosystem and the Swiss National Bank (SNB) conducted a EUR/CHF foreign exchange swap, with a seven-day maturity, to provide Swiss franc liquidity against euro. This operation attracted bids for €5.57 billion, and since this was well below the intended amount of €25 billion, all bids were allotted in full at a fixed price of -0.89 swap points.
On Tuesday, November 24, the ECB announced a standard Longer-Term Refinancing Operation (LTRO) with a maturity of 91 days. In this LTRO, the ECB received bids for €2.07 billion, which amount was allotted in full at a fixed rate equivalent to the prevailing main refinancing rate of 1.00 per cent.
On Wednesday, November 25, the ECB, in conjunction with the US Federal Reserve, conducted a six-day US dollar funding operation through collateralised lending. This attracted bids for $17.93 billion, which amount was allotted in full at a fixed rate of 1.11 per cent.
In the domestic primary market for Treasury Bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 91-day bills maturing on February 26, 2010 and 182-day bills maturing on May 28, 2010. Bids for €48.35 million were submitted for the 91-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €22.07 million, while bids for €39.01 million were submitted for the 182-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €2.43 million. Since €38.17 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury Bills decreased by €13.68 million to €534.65 million.
The yield resulting from the 91-day bill auction was 1.428 per cent, 0.1 basis points below that on bills with a similar tenor issued on November 20. The latest yield on such bills represented a bid price of 99.6403 per 100 nominal. The yield resulting from the 182-day bill auction was 1.538 per cent, i.e. 6.6 basis points lower than that on bills with a similar tenor issued on November 6. The yield on these bills represented a bid price of 99.2285 per 100 nominal.
Today the Treasury will invite tenders for 91-day bills maturing on March 5, 2010 and 182-day bills maturing on June 4, 2010.
Treasury Bill trading on the Malta Stock Exchange amounted to €9.40 million during the week, with €0.08 million trades being conducted by the Central Bank of Malta in its role as market maker and €9.32 million trades being conducted by other brokers. Concurrently off-exchange transactions amounted to €1.46 million, of which €0.58 million were transacted by the Central Bank of Malta broker.